Alcohol Use and Abuse Ranks No. 1 Health Concern to Alaskans

Preliminary results from the initial Healthy Alaskans 2020 survey have been released and it showed alcohol as the top ranking health concern to Alaskans.

The survey run from Sept. 17 to Oct. 22 with more than 1,500 Alaskans answering questions about Health Behaviors, Access to Care, Social and Economic Factors, Physical Environment, and Health Outcomes. Almost 70 percent of the respondents were between 30 and 59 years old, nearly 30 percent were between 50 and 59 years old, and less than two percent were 20 years or younger.

Of those who responded to the Health Behavior questions, 19 percent agree that alcohol use was the topic they were most concerned about in their community and 13 percent went for other types of substance abuse. Heavy drinking was selected by 10 percent of the responders and 7 percent selected illegal drug use as the specific health behaviors Alaskans are most concerned about.